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Chapter 8 considers blood and tissue protistans not considered in the prior two chapters. Babesia is a protozoan parasite of the blood that causes a hemolytic disease known as Babesiosis. People who contract Babesiosis suffer from malaria-like symptoms and as a result, malaria is a common misdiagnosis for the disease. Approximately 100 species of Babesia have been identified, only a few have been documented as pathogenic in humans. In the United States, Babesia microti is the most common strain associated with humans. Toxoplasma gondii can be carried by many warm-blooded animals (birds or mammals, including humans), but the definitive host of T. gondii is the cat. Toxoplasmosis is usually minor and self-limiting but can have serious or, in rare cases, fatal effects on a fetus whose mother contracts the disease during pregnancy or on an immunocompromised individual. |
